1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network communication system consisting of a network management system serving as a manager and a plurality of exchanges connected as agents to this manager, and more particularly to an interface between the manager and agents, and, at the manager, a GUI (graphical user interface) for displaying various types of status information of the agents.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to satisfy a variety of customer-requested specifications in network communication systems of the prior art, a plurality of system files were prepared in advance and necessary system files were installed to each exchange (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cagentsxe2x80x9d) in accordance with the customer specifications. A manager program in accordance with the system files installed in agents connected to the manager was installed in the GUI of the network management system (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cmanagerxe2x80x9d) for managing each agent. It was therefore necessary to build systems at the manager for each individual agent to be connected.
In recent years, a common GUI has been built at almost all agents by adopting a general interface or standard model that uses standard interfaces and open interfaces. Not all interfaces have been standardized, however, and individualized processing still occurs. Managers must therefore still modify the GUI to connect with each agent.
Various types of such network management systems have been proposed. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 181701/96, for example, discloses ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) Exchange network management equipment for automatically selecting the most suitable permanent virtual connection path. This invention, however, assumes that the plurality of ATM exchanges connected to the ATM exchange network management equipment are all connected with the ATM exchange network management equipment through the same interface. This invention therefore cannot be applied in cases in which each ATM exchange has individual functions and services, or even its own interfaces.
As another example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 143448/84 discloses an invention in which the back-up files of a plurality of exchanges that are centrally managed at a network management center are supplied from the network management center to each exchange. In this invention, the network management center must have the back-up files of each of the exchanges connected to the network management center in a case in which dissimilar functions are to be established at each of the exchanges.
The aforementioned network communication systems of the prior art thus have the following drawbacks:
(1) In cases in which the interfaces of a plurality of agents are not unified, the manager must be provided with the corresponding manager program for each different interface.
(2) Because GUI application files provided at the manager relate to the functions and services of agents, GUI application files for every function or service of agents are required if differing functions must be established for each of the agents.
(3) Addition to or modification of a function or service that has already been established at agents require the modification of or addition to the manager program of the manager.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a network communication system that does not require addition to or modification of manager and agent software even in cases when differing functions must be established at each of the agents.
To achieve the above-described object, the present invention proposes a network communication system that includes a plurality of exchanges and a network management system. The plurality of exchanges include an agent-specific information common-conversion processor that is controlled as agents, for converting agent-specific information that can be recognized by agents to common information that can be recognized by the manager that performs control of agents, sending this information to the manager, and converting common information supplied from the manager to agent-specific information.
The network management system acts as a manager that manages each exchange as an agent.
By means of the agent-specific information-common conversion processor, agent-specific information is converted to common information that can be recognized in the network management system and then fed to the network management system, and common information outputted from the network management system is converted to agent-specific information and then managed.
There is consequently no need to provide manager programs according to interfaces at the manager even if the interfaces of exchanges, which are agents, differ each other. As a result, the manager need be provided with only a standard manager program even when controlling agents having differing interfaces.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the exchanges further have an interface conversion processor that selects the most suitable GUI application file and most suitable program for effecting established functions and services, and that sends notification of the selected program and GUI application file to the network management system.
By means of the interface conversion processor, the most suitable GUI application file and most suitable program for effecting the established functions and services are selected, and the selected programs and GUI application files are notified to the network management system.
The network management system, which is the manager, therefore does not need to be provided with a corresponding GUI application file and program for each agent. Furthermore, even in a case in which a new function is added to a particular agent, the new application software need be developed and sent only to that agent, and no modification is necessary for the network management system, i.e., the manager, or for other agents.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate examples of the present invention.